Board logo

Capaciters
The Doc - 15/5/11 at 08:10 AM

Ford XFlow - Got rid of ballasted coil and fitted standard 12V. Do I now need fit a different rating of capaciter?

TA

Mike

jollygreengiant - 15/5/11 at 08:21 AM

No. The capacitor is only there to give a clean sharp switch to the on/off across the point.

The balast is there (or was there) so that when you were cranking the to start the car the coil would would have enough voltage to provide a spark, but not have to much and burn out when not using the starter-motor. hence generally a 9V coil balasted ingnition system. If you have fitted a12V coil, make sure that you have removed the balast resistor as well.

I hope that all makes sense.

[Edited on 15/5/11 by jollygreengiant]

big_wasa - 15/5/11 at 09:03 AM

Doesnt running them 12v all the time burn the points out quicker ?

jollygreengiant - 15/5/11 at 10:59 AM

quote:
Originally posted by big_wasa
Doesnt running them 12v all the time burn the points out quicker ?


That would be the reason that points were serviced regularly and replace frequently, thus the reason why a better system of swicthing was sought resulting in elctronic ignition. 9V or 12V it doesn't matter much you still get some form of arc-ing across the points, which wears and erodes the contact faces (which should be as smooth as possible, hence contact files and dwell meters so that you could set a better points gap even with rough faces) and 9V coils were only fitted (with balance resistor) to provide a better spark at cranking voltages.

rusty nuts - 15/5/11 at 11:33 AM

Better bet if you can find one is a Valencia distributor from an old Fiesta , get the coil and the small wiring loom section. Makes for a much more reliable ignition set up